¡Salude a los ganadores!

Thursday night, 8:26 p.m. I’m sitting at the dinner table with my madre and hermana. We’re eating pea soup with potatoes and carrots.

My cell phone beeps — a text message.

“And the dance continues. 62-59. Manny had 23.”

Fist pumping ensues, quickly followed by screaming and “The Victors.”

My madre and hermana are frightened. They have no idea what happened. I told them that I just really like the soup. They know I like the food here, but they knew that I don’t like it that much.

On Wednesday, I had explained that my university’s basketball team had reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998, and, that if I were not in a small village outside of Cayambe, I would probably be in Kansas City at the Sprint Center.

My reaction was so quick that they didn’t have time to relate my post-text-message jubilation with the NCAA Tournament. I apologized for scaring them. I compared it to Ecuador reaching the World Cup, and they understood. (Not an accurate comparison, I know, but it gets the point across. A better comparison would have been the local club team reaching the Copa Libertadores after spending a decade recovering from a scandal)

Now, everybody in this house is excited for tonight’s game. I taught my hermana “The Victors” and translated it into Spanish so she understands what I’m talking about. My hermano wasn’t home at the time. I’ll teach him a little later.

Salude a los ganadores, valiente
Salude a los conquistando heroes
Salude, salude a Michigan
Los lideres y los mejores

Salude a los ganadores, valiente
Salude a los conquistando heroes
Salude, salude a Michigan
Los campeones del oeste

I don’t know the rest of the song in English, so translating it to Spanish would have been near-impossible.

Thursday afternoon might have been one of the first times that I actually missed American culture. The four-day weekend (Thursday-Sunday) are probably might favorite four days of the year. Great college basketball all-day long. But I’m managing. I couldn’t fill out a bracket this year because Michigan was in the tournament. I know I picked against Michigan in Staff Picks, but I’m a fan again. I don’t think they are going to win it all, but I still couldn’t pick them to lose.